Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Green cards!
It feels like a bit of a cop out to pick the bombiest bomb of the bombs in the set as my top card but I mean, look at it.
First of all, your investment is protected because Last March can’t be countered. The fail case is that your biggest creature gets removed and you draw cards equal to the next biggest creature. Even if you have no creatures, if you’ve got a grip full of creatures, you’ll be putting them all into play for “free”. With you being in green, you won’t have trouble getting to eight mana in no time. Prep some pump spells and then smack this on the stack. Have fun Treefolk decks, Spider decks, and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper decks.
This feels like one of those cards I can’t believe is real. A sort of Vizier of the Menagerie on an enchantment paired with Cryptolith Rite.
Turn your creatures into Birds of Paradise which can be achieved for two mana with Rite, but that extra bit of hand extension can get really silly when you’re mostly creatures. Pair this with Season of Growth to manipulate the top deck so you don’t get stopped and can keep the creatures coming. A token deck of creatures that enter with little friends is the perfect spot for this. This is a card that seems like it’ll enable so, so much. Test this in every green deck and see how it runs!
A one mana mana dork that taps for colourless can be useful when you’re running Eldrazi Displacer, but what’s even more important and useful is Delighted Halfling’s second ability which is Cavern of Souls for legendary spells.
The Ozolith? Uncounterable. Your commander? Uncounterable. Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering? Uncounterable.
This is all on a body that’s better than a Llanowar Elves and serves similar purpose with a little more protection. This is massive for decks whose pod keeps countering their commander.
Peregrin Took is a token creation replacement effect that gives you a Food whenever you create a token. How this works with Academy Manufactor or other replacement effects is that they only trigger once each so it won’t chain together constantly, but you will get a decent amount of tokens. Let’s say you play Strike it Rich into Manufactor and Peregrin Took, you can choose to prioritize Manufactor then PT and get a Treasure, a Clue, and two Food tokens. But if you go the other way around, PT then Manufactor, you get a Treasure and Food which becomes two Treasures, two Foods, and two Clues. Just be sure to figure it all out.
That said, you’ve seen how easy it is to make tokens and, in a deck that makes a ton of tokens like my Will the Wise and Mike, the Dungeon Master deck, Peregrin Took is about to draw an absolute monster truck load of cards.
So this isn’t an instance of total and direct power creep of Harrow. Remember Roiling Regrowth? It’s Harrow but the lands enter tapped instead of untapped. The other big difference is that sacrificing the land is part of the spell resolving and not an additional cost. This means that if Harrow is copied, you sacrifice one land and get four. If you copy Roiling Regrowth, you sacrifice two lands and get four.
Entish Restoration is just great in decks that don’t care about copying the spell and have a creature with power four or greater to beef this up to three lands. Roiling Regrowth has been power crept for sure.
The Gitrog Monster is where this will be played most but basically any deck running Harrow right now that might have a four power creature out often will prefer this to Harrow.
That does it for Green! Stay tuned for Artifacts and Lands.
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards! I’m going to be very honest and say that Red this time around is extremely disappointing. There are so many restrictions and limits on cards that would otherwise be fun and cool. Let’s start.
That’s right, I had to pick the legendary land in this colour for top card here. That’s how frustrated I am with this set’s Red selection.
That’s not to say that Mines of Moria is weak, it’s just a little boring. It comes in untapped if you’ve got a legendary creature but it only taps for red. Sure it triggers your Field of the Dead but you can’t fetch it out.
What you can do is hold up mana in a reactive deck like an Izzet counter spell deck and exile three cards from your yard, pay four, and tap Mines for two treasures.
The three cards is steeper than I want it to be considering. It’s already essentially five mana, but to be able to stockpile that kind of value is solid and definitely worth considering in your Tormod, the Desecrator and red partner decks.
This is not a good Saga besides its last chapter, but that chapter is so funny I need to hope that I’ll get to it. There’s so much proliferate out there that I have faith you’ll get there before your opponents remove it.
Chapter One – Target creature can’t block and you get tempted by the Ring. Whatever.
Chapter Two – Fetch a Mountain to play. This can be a Triome!
Chapter Three – Make the funniest creature in the set.
With the Smaug token, you’re going to want to clone and populate it. Jaxis, the Troublemaker decks are about to go off if they can protect their Saga. To get 14 Treasures off the death of a single creature? Divine!
Anybody you hear comparing this to The Meathook Massacre needs to be smacked across the face to wake them up because they’re dreaming.
Meatball Massacre is a drain and gain effect that happens every time a creature of yours or your opponents dies, that happens to have a board wipe stapled to it, thus making it extremely powerful.
Spiteful Banditry costs 15 mana to do what Blasphemous Act can do and then it gives you a measly Treasure. Then it gives you a Treasure when an opponent’s creature dies… but only once per turn. Not once per turn per player, but just once per turn. Meaning that you can get, yes, four Treasures a turn cycle, but you have to have enough to make it happen.
That said, it makes my list because creatures die all the time in commander. Playing this for two mana or three mana can still be a pretty decent deal that pays for itself over time. It’s once I’m hoping to try out in my Sevinne, the Chronoclasm Brash Taunters list.
If you have a Humans deck with red in it (Jirina Kudro) I highly recommend finding a slot for Erkenbrand. There are so many ways to make a ton of Human tokens and each one of those becomes a power anthem for the turn. There are ways to make Humans at instant speed, there are ways to copy Humans, Humans that enter with other Humans – Humans are probably the deepest creature type in Magic. If you’ve got a deck for them, you’ve got to make room for the Lord of Westfold.
This made my top five because it’s a two mana model spell at instant speed that can exile a powerful and oft protected permanent type or ping two creatures. Put this in your Enrage themed Dinosaur decks or in your deck with Liquimetal Torque and get rid of those pesky “artifacts”. Isochron Scepter this with the Torque and start going for lands… one… by… one.
I think it’s cool and it’s always nice to see a common that you can consider for Commander.
That does it for Red (good riddance, unfortunately) and we’re on to Green!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Black cards!
My favourite card of the bunch for Black is Mirkwood Bats, which should come as no surprise for anybody who’s read my stuff before because I am an aristocrats player through and through. Mirkwood Bats says tokens hurt your opponents on the way in and when sacrificed – that should be alarm bells for all of us!
The format is overrun by Treasures everywhere! Two damage per Treasure with these Bats out! Clue tokens and Food tokens, same!
If you make a board of Zombie tokens, they’ll do damage when created and then again when you take them to your Altar of Dementia.
This card shakes the sand of an hourglass like an earthquake in the right deck and I am HERE! FOR! IT!
This card has had cEDH rumblings and been causing quite a stir. People have been calling for it to be banned and usually that’s such an eye roll moment… but maybe this time they’re right? Two mana at instant speed for two bodies plus a ping for anything is pretty sweet already, but add to it that one of the bodies grows or returns over time and you can continue to ping away at anything at the low low cost of your… opponents drawing cards anytime other than their draw step?
This card absolutely is bananas. There’s no doubt about it.
Call of the Ring isn’t crazy, but it is useful. If you’ve got a repeatable way to make a creature a Ring-bearer like with Call of the Ring, you can focus on creating an engine or a combo with this ability. I’ve covered Ratadrabik of Urborg with Boromir, Warden of the Tower and being able to tack on draw for two life to dig for the final piece of the puzzle isn’t a bad rate.
Once the Ring is powered up to its fullest form, it stays there, so being able to pick a new Ring-bearer every turn to keep the Ring around, or even just to draw a card, is pretty sweet. It’s solid but doesn’t make me scream with excitement.
Such a wild and weird little guy that captures the flavour of riddles and duality without sacrificing power. Gollum, Scheming Guide is begging to be at the helm of your deck as a really, really strange Voltron commander. Load the deck up with some Equipment and signature black spells like Hatred and go ham. Having your opponent guess is such a fun mini game. The kicker is that it doesn’t even need to be the opponent you’re attacking who needs to guess, so you can have another player try their hand and flub the guess especially if you’ve got some information to share, like having just activated Haunted Crossroads.
I love that Gollum either gets through with unblockable or gets removed from combat altogether, entirely mitigating the danger of combat altogether.
Time to find some weird black cards that say “when you attack” to fully take advantage of this…
My last pick has been called a little underwhelming to some and to them I say okay whatever! I think she’s way stronger than she looks. The big goal for me is killing a Consuming Aberration and then turning it into Treasure with Lobelia. There are so many kill spells and incidental deaths in Magic that Lobelia is likely to basically cost less than three no matter when you cast her with the Treasures paying you back.
As someone who plays graveyard shenanigans, I hate this because anybody can have this. If I see her in play with a flicker effect somewhere, I am weary! Eldrazi Displacer and Emiel the Blessed, stay back!
Graveyard hate and ramp on a weird lil creature that comes back with Sun Titan and other white recursion restrictions, there’s a lot to like here.
That does it for Black, keep an eye out for Red!
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Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Blue cards!
I really love this card. It costs two mana and replaces itself to give you a surprise Vedalken Orrery. I see some folks talking about this with Isochron Scepter but at that point, might as well go with Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery.
That said, there’s a reason not all cards can be played at instant speed! Being able to staple two mana to any spell to turn it into a cantrip and have it come down in a surprise is wild. Need to wipe the board to null an attack? Two extra mana please. Want to play your big scary enchantment on the end step before your turn, after your opponents have tapped out so you can guarantee they won’t counter or remove it? Two extra mana please!
This card is definitely a more competitive card than what I normally go for, but I’d say instant speeding your commander and cantripping as a baseline seems pretty sick.
I feel conflicted about blue getting what is essentially an Alliance ability on this creature, but I really like him, so I’ll give it a pass. Talk about wishing Choose a Background or Partner was on a card! Elrond, Lord of Rivendell is a solid scry enabler for your Eligeth, Crossroads Augur decks or Elminster decks, but ultimately the space for scry matters is still being carved out.
Smoothing out your draws is very useful in this format and I appreciate incidental scrying. But that tempting of the Ring is great with creatures in blue – evasive guys who will get through and start hitting each opponent for 3 life when they connect and getting a loot. There are also fun cards that are printed in this set that care about when you select your Ring-bearer.
As far as potential monoblue commanders in the set go, it’s going to be very difficult to beat The Watcher in the Water. A 9/9 for five is a lot of value. Sure it can’t untap until it untaps nine times first, but it sits and generates value for drawing cards on your opponents’ turns – a thing blue loves doing already.
The Tentacle tokens become amazing rattlesnake blockers that can come out of nowhere. Not to mention if you’ve got Intruder Alarm, you’ll speed run your way to having the Watcher untapped. With the Tentacles dying, you get to stun nonland permanents and get through for big damage. This is a hell of a control piece. Really, really wild.
In the 99 of decks, I can see Phenax, God of Deception players getting really happy about this or any decks that love Burning Anger, Fiendlash, and some pingers. In the end, we’re going to see this in the command zone most often.
Spark Double is busted already but copy Ioreth and have a legendary permanent with a good tap ability and it’s infinite whatever that is. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx? Infinite mana. Alaundo the Seer decks get to dump their decks. Arcanis the Omnipotent and Chromatic Orrery say draw your library. Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam can copy an artifact spell you cast infinite times, finally making Meteorite useful. Those are just a few of the 414 cards I found in Scryfall that are legendary with tap abilities.
Add to Ioreth’s fun the fact that the Ring tempting you means you can turn a creature you control into a Ring-bearer and therefore into a legendary creature. Let’s see what we can make work with this nonsense.
Four mana to draw four cards, discard two cards, and then get two mana back while shuffling cards you never wanted to dump back into your library makes this a pretty solid Saga. It’s a little slow, but Proliferate is a mechanic we’ve seen return with lots of support. Reanimator decks don’t mind tossing a creature into the graveyard and decks that don’t have any means to Regrowth will be satisfied with the deck shuffle. Enchantment decks might want this to fuel Replenish effects or maybe this is just a good card for Tom Bombadil. I really like it.
That does it for Blue, come on back for Black!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set previews under way, we got a new four-colour general to play with!
Aragorn, the Uniter is red, green, white, and blue. No black for Aragorn! Let’s see what we can do with this Legendary Human Noble 5/5 for RGWU! Textbox please!
“Whenever you cast a white spell, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.
Whenever you cast a blue spell, scry 2.
Whenever you cast a red spell, Aragorn, the Uniter deals 3 damage to target opponent.
Whenever you cast a green spell, target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.”
That’s pretty spicy and if I may infer from the textbox, we’re looking at a multicolour themed list. Let’s get into some reminders.
What colour do you want to favour in your deck building? Are you going with a theme? This commander is so open ended, this article is difficult to write. But I’m gonna do my best!
Let’s put some cards in a deck shall we?
The first card I want to highlight is a new one from Dominaria United Commander. It’s a five colour card whose colour identity is green. Yeah, it’s crazy weird! It’s an excellent inclusion for a version of an Aragorn, the Uniter deck that is favouring multicoloured spells for the whole deck because Wayfarer’s second ability gives those spells convoke.
Why not run Cryptolith Rite or something? Because cool cards are cool and when you cast this three mana enabler, you get to create a 1/1 token, to scry 2, to deal 3 to an opponent, and to give +4/+4 to a creature, likely your commander. That’s a lot of value for something that’s already doing a lot.
Using cards cards that come back to your hand so you can cast them again and get your advantage is a solid plan when it comes to Aragorn. Shrieking Drake, Whitemane Lion, and Stonecloaker all require you to return a creature from the battlefield to your hand. They can bounce themselves to your hand so you can keep triggering Aragorn. Surprisingly, Shrieking Drake, the blue one on this list, doesn’t have flash, but it does only cost one for scry 2. Not to mention, if you’ve got something like Impact Tremors out or Aura Shards or Mana Echoes, that’s even more value.
But what if we wanted this effect in other colours? Azorious champs Deputy of Acquittals and Niambi, Esteemed Speaker get there slightly by allowing you to return another creature to hand. Ephara’s Enlightenment lets you return it to your hand when a creature enters (aka when you cast a white spell).
What else? Planeshift gave us the gating mechanic. Horned Kavu now plays like a repeatable two mana Lightning Bolt to an opponent’s face and a pump effect that also triggers Alliance abilities like Gala Greeters and Witty Roastmaster. Fleetfoot Panther, Sawtooth Loon, Silver Drake, and Sparkcaster are all worth a second look if you’ve got the mana and love some value.
Let’s get some extra value for casting multicoloured spells!
General Ferrous Rokiric will make a 4/4 Golem every time your cast a multicoloured spell. A 4/4 Golem is the perfect companion for a 1/1 white Human token created by Hero of Precinct One when you cast a multicoloured spell.
With Knight of New Alara and Glass of the Guildpact, your multicoloured creatures get more powerful. Meanwhile, Gloryscale Viashino only buffs itself with a Giant Growth for every multicoloured spell, making it quite the threat.
Mana Cannons and Lobber Crew turn your multicoloured spells into some burn to toss around. Obsidian Obelisk and Pillar of the Paruns help fix your mana for multicoloured spells only. Urza’s Filter reduces your multicoloured spells’ cost by 2 and Tome of the Guildpact is an expensive mana rock that gives you a card when you cast multicoloured spells. The Mana Rig also gives you Powerstones per multicoloured spell you cast. But do Powerstones matter? They do when they enable some digging using its second ability. But also when you’ve got Reckless Fireweaver type effects going.
Rienne, Angel of Rebirth is probably my favourite for this kind of deck. Every time a multicoloured creature you control dies, you’ll get it back to hand at the end step. Meaning you’ll get to cast them again. Huge!
Lorwyn block era gave us creatures that blew my mind back in the day that I literally gasped at upon reading. Unfortunately, a lot of my faves are black. However, the six eligible Lieges only get better when you get extra cast triggers from Aragorn.
The weakest of the bunch are Boartusk Liege and Wilt-Leaf Liege but they still grant buffs to the creatures that share their colour and prock Aragorn triggers.
Thistledown Liege, Murkfiend Liege, Mindwrack Liege, and Balefire Liege all have their advantages that only add to the fact that you’re getting so much out of your commander. I’ll say Balefire Liege is most exciting to me if you’re looking to go hard on red, but all of these are fun to see in your hand.
Here are some multicoloured cards that I really like in this deck: A brief top ten list with very little explanation – IT’S LIKE A BONUS ARTICLE IN AN ARTICLE!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set previews beginning this week, we need to whet our appetite and quench our thirst with a little bit of a brew. So let’s talk about a card that was previewed a little bit ago.
An uncommon (!) 1/3 Legendary Creature – Halfling Rogue for 1UR, Bilbo, Retired Burglar gives us a lot to like. Let’s see that text box.
“When Bilbo, Retired Burglar enters or leaves the battlefield, the Ring tempts you. Whenever Bilbo deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token.”
To really appreciate this card, we need to learn more about the Ring and what happens when it tempts you.
As the Ring tempts you, you get an emblem named ‘The Ring’ if you don’t have one. Then your emblem gains its next ability and you choose a creature you control to become or remain your Ring-bearer.
Things to remember:
Let’s pick some cards!
My favourite card for the deck gets its own bullet point.
Alora, Merry Thief says you can make a creature unblockable if you bounce it to your hand at your end step. This can mean getting in for massive damage but more likely here in this deck getting Bilbo to max out the Ring and pick new Ring-bearers. It’ll also get you at least a Treasure token, which is already pretty damn great.
With this much bouncing, Candlekeep Sage seems like a solid include so you can get a card with Bilbo coming and going. Actually, Backgrounds are a solid idea for this deck! Sword Coast Sailor allows for further unblockable shenanigans for more Izzet ramp. Combine that with Popular Entertainer and you’ll get to goad the board making for easier attacks again. Feywild Visitor and Guild Artisan also grant token bonuses for when your commander swings. With all the Treasure you’ll make, Street Urchin might be the right card for some targeted ping removal. Maybe sack the artifacts to Clan Crafter to buff up Bilbo, and draw a card. But now that you’re through the blockers…
Give your board double strike! Bilbo has a combat damage trigger! Time to double that by making Bilbo hit with both fists.
Give your whole board double striker with enchantments Berserkers’ Onslaught and Rage Reflection. How about combat step triggering a gift of double strike with Blood Mist and its creature counterpart Chaos Terminator Lord. Even Swashbuckler Extraordinaire triggers at combat, but it’ll cost you a Treasure.
Death-Greeter’s Champion’s Dash ability is an expensive way to give creatures double strike and a buff, but it’s repeatable which is great. The ultimate repeatable way for this is Equipment: Lizard Blades and Fireshrieker deserve a slot.
The absolute best board wide double strike granter is the surprise Dragon Blast-Furnace Hellkite. That’ll end a game early!
If you’re going to be attacking and rocking some double strike, let’s draw some cards! Enchantments Reconnaissance Mission, Coastal Piracy, and Bident of Thassa all give you a card per combat damage to a player. Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar draws per player you hit but gives your opponent a catch-22 if they’re staring down Bilbo in the combat zone. Equipment like Mask of Memory and Mask of the Schemer also fill your hand via combat damage.
How about drawing your opponents’ cards? Grenzo, Havoc Raiser is one of the most powerful two-drops ever printed. I cannot oversell this card when there are critters getting through your opponents’ defences.
How about some more Lotus Petals – I mean, Treasures. Professional Face-Breaker, Prosperous Thief, Reaver Cleaver, and Storm the Vault – all of these give you Treasures on combat damage. Face-Breaker lets you trade Treasures for cards. Cleaver lets you make more than one Treasure per hit. Storm the Vault very easily flips into an impression of a rightfully banned card Tolarian Academy. Prosperous Thief allows you to create Treasures as long as you hit players with Rogues (which Bilbo is) and Ninjas. It also has Ninjustu which…
Ninjustsu is perfect! Do we have an Izzet Ninja commander? Sneak in your ninjas with the ability and appoint the ninja as the Ring-bearer, reap the benefits! Mistblade Shinobi, Moon-Circuit Hacker, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Moonblade Shinobi, Moonsnare Specialist, Sakashima’s Student, Thousand-Faced Shadow, and of course, the aforementioned Prosperous Thief.
All of them are blue of course which is theme that comes with the other creature type eligible for support here: Rogues.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is another great way to get your commander through. Ghostly Pilferer is an excellent inclusion especially with all these “cast from exile” cards running around. Thieving Skydiver remains one of the best kicker spells in the game and will likely always have a solid target by turn three. Sakashima cards are always welcome. Whirler Rogue for more unblockable. Treasure Nabber so you can take away mana rocks from your opponents – I mean, borrow! Faerie Mastermind draws you cards when your opponents get greedy. Thada Adel, Acquisitor lets you take artifact cards right from your opponents’ libraries. Cephalid Facetaker is unblockable and can clone at combat. Not to mention Alora and Grenzo are also Rogues.
Just remember to pack your tribal support cards if you decide to build around a creature type in particular. Path of Ancestry, Secluded Courtyard, and Unclaimed Territory for fixing and filtering. Distant Melody, Vanquisher’s Banner, Herald’s Horn, and Kindred Discovery for lots of draw. Kindred Charge for doubling up your board of potential double strikers. Molten Echoes gives you more copies while Door of Destinies and Obelisk of Urd makes the chosen type stronger.
That’ll do it for another edition of A Seat at the Table. Enjoy the previews this week! If a creature jumps out at you, let me know which and I’ll write it up! @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. With The Lord of the Rings set coming in a month and preview season approaching quickly, I wanted to take on one of the legends we’ve seen so far: Sauron, the Lidless Eye.
“But Mike,” you say, puzzled. “Why are you so interested in Sauron, the Lidless Eye? Aren’t there already ways in Rakdos to Act of Treason your opponents’ creatures?”
To which I say, “Don’t get ahead of me! It’s time for a textbox!”
For 3RB, Sauron, the Lidless Eye is a 4/4 Legendary Creature – Avatar Horror who just wants to reach out and touch faith. Let’s see that textbox:
“When Sauron, the Lidless Eye enters the battlefield, gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
1BR: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. Each opponent loses 2 life.”
So why is this so special? There are only 17 legends eligible for the command zone that have the ability to gain control of your opponents’ creatures and permanents. One of them even takes control of the opponent themselves (Emrakul, the Promised End). However, of the 17, only one is Rakdos (Olivia Voldaren) and most of them don’t trigger on entering the battlefield, are very narrow, have multiple hoops to jump through, etc. The only one that comes close is Dragonlord Silumgar. So this is pretty new for these colours! Sure, there are cards like Zealous Conscripts out there, but they can’t be in the command zone and built around in these colours!
Another thing to note is that Sauron’s activated ability can be used offensively, defensively, and straight up passively. Let’s go over some things first:
Let’s pick some cards!
I will be brief and name my favourite sacrifice outlets in the game: Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod’s Altar, and Altar of Dementia. Woe Strider and Viscera Seer are also great. Goblin Bombardment is solid, and shout out to Lyzolda, the Blood Witch if you’re looking to sacrifice your commander a bunch.
There are a bunch of ways to get your commander back into play from the graveyard like Phyrexian Delver, Animate Dead, Victimize, Ayara, Furnace Queen (back side of Ayara, Widow of the Realm), Body Launderer, Vat of Rebirth, and of course, the classic Reanimate. Feldon of the Third Path does a pseudo-reanimate job here too.
I also want to shout out cards like Malakir Rebirth, Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina, Kaya’s Ghostform, Ashnod’s Intervention, Undying Malice, Demonic Gifts, Fake Your Own Death, and Return to Action.
And if you want to go harder, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Lifeline are pretty gross in this shell.
Radiant Performer is an instant copy spell that they put on a creature. Radiate is fine in this deck, but you can’t Phyrexian Reclamation an instant. You can however Volrath’s Stronghold a creature, so Radiant Performer is preferred in this deck. You must cast the creature from your hand, and when it enters the battlefield, you get to copy a spell or ability for every eligible target.
Is Sauron being targeted by Path to Exile? Play Radiant Performer for a board wide wipe and ramp unexpectedly. But more importantly, you can copy abilities. Sauron’s ability targets a creature your opponents control and Radiant Performer turns that into an Insurrection. Live the dream with a Zealous Conscripts though since that card just says target permanent, meaning that you’ll untap everything you’ve got and take the entire board. The whole thing.
Conjurer’s Closet allows you to have get another trigger from Sauron or if you’ve still got an opponent’s creature, it allows you to keep it. That’s right. Conjurer’s Closet says under YOUR control. That means if you use Sauron to take an opponent’s Consecrated Sphinx and then blink it with the Closet, you get that Sphinx for good until it’s removed or blinked. It’s a great way to trigger your Terror of the Peaks more than you normally would. Pair it with Panharmonicon for double triggers!
Nightmare Shepherd similarly to Conjurer’s Closet allows you to keep your opponents’ creature… in a way. When a nontoken creature you control dies, you get to decide whether to exile it or not and if you do, you get a 1/1 version of it! That’s pretty sick. You can sacrifice an opponent’s creature to Carrion Feeder and get a lil guy version that can still be a great ETB. It’s also still useful for your own creatures. If you’ve got a Gray Merchant of Asphodel out and one more trigger will kill the table? Time to sacrifice it and let the Shepherd guide it home… back to the battlefield!
What’s another great way to trigger your commander? Copy it. I know you’re expecting to see Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker here, but he doesn’t copy legends!
Red loves to copy creatures. It’s crazy how many amazing effects there are. Twinflame and Heat Shimmer are the OG sorceries for this type of thing. Jaxis, the Troublemaker, Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink, Rionya, Fire Dancer, and Delina, Wild Mage are all a solid run of creatures that create copies in different ways that are all worthy of inclusion in the deck. Soulbond Sauron with Mirage Phalanx or give him a +1/+1 and let Mirror-Style Master help. Cursed Mirror can be your commander, but why not just copy your opponent’s creature?
Flameshadow Conjuring, Molten Echoes, and Mirror March love a nontoken creature entering the battlefield. Make copies of Sauron easily with these enchantments with a little mana or luck. Helm of the Host, Blade of Selves, and Splinter Twin say hello to the Mirror-Style Master.
What about black though? Saw in Half kind of counts right? Make mini versions of your commander and sacrifice one? Alright, why not? Question mark?
And now, a list of good Threaten effects I recommend if you want to go whole hog on gaining control of your opponents’ stuff: Seize the Spotlight, Mob Rule, Captivating Crew, Zealous Conscripts, Mass Mutiny, Coercive Recruiter (a fantastic copy target, by the way), Molten Primordial, Word of Seizing, Angrath, the Flame-Chained.
That does it for another A Seat at the Table! With the new LOTR set coming out, keep your eyes peeled for previews coming soon!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. Coming up in the Commander Masters preconstructed Commander decks, one of my favourite characters in all of Magic: The Gathering’s history.
Commodore Guff is one of the silliest characters written for the game and I won’t lie, I don’t really see what part of his history is on this card aside from being supportive of other planeswalkers. I have an Aminatou, the Fateshifter superfriends planeswalker deck, so I’ll be drawing from my experience with that deck to suggest cards here.
At five loyalty for 1URW, Guff trades black for red as a Jeskai superfriends leader. Let’s see that textbox.
“At the beginning of your end step, put a loyalty counter on another target planeswalker you control.
+1: Create a 1/1 red Wizard creature token with “{T}: Add R. Spend this mana only to cast a planeswalker spell.”
-3: You draw X cards and Commodore Guff deals X damage to each opponent, where X is the number of planeswalkers you control.
Commodore Guff can be your commander.”
I think I get it now! Commodore Guff’s whole deal is that he knows the fate of the multiverse and breaking the fourth wall. He gets planeswalkers to their ultimate abilities quicker by hinting them to their end.
Here are a few things to note:
There are so many great cards for a superfriends deck besides the planeswalkers themselves. I want to mostly highlight the cards that aren’t planeswalkers. I’ll mention a few but keeping it at non-planeswalker cards.
Let’s talk about getting your planeswalkers to their strongest abilities. Ultimate abilities are usually hard to evaluate a planeswalker on because they infrequently make it to that level. If you have ways to bolster them – like Guff’s static ability – you very well might get to an emblem like Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset’s or Dovin Baan’s or Venser, the Sojourner’s. There’s no Doubling Season for these colours, but there are a bunch of ways to add counters.
Inexorable Tide lets you proliferate when you cast any spell, while Flux Channeler does it for noncreature spells. Deepglow Skate’s ETB allows your to double the counters on any number of target permanents which is pretty good when you’ve got a board full of planeswalkers. Ichormoon Gauntlet gives all of your planeswalkers the ability to proliferate and eventually an extra turn, not to mention a single target proliferate when you cast a noncreature spell. It’s really powerful. If you’re already proliferating, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus thinks it’s so nice, better do it twice. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame basically proliferates your red planeswalkers for its 0 ability, but it won’t trigger Tekluthal.
Oath of Gideon and Lae’zel, Vlaakith’s Champion lets your planeswalkers enter with an extra loyalty counter. Lae’zel allows you to add an extra loyalty counter when using an ability that adds a counter, such as Guff’s +1 ability.
Get your planeswalkers within range of their emblems and get it down!
Sphere of Safety, when paired with enough enchantments, can make it impossible for your opponents to get through and hit your planeswalkers in any meaningful way. Norn’s Annex does a similar thing making your opponents have to either pay white or two life. But what about turning them into creatures so they can’t be targeted at all? Luxior, Giada’s Gift isn’t just a solid win condition when you’ve got a big enough planeswalker, but it also means that your opponents can’t attack your planeswalker of choice directly. Deification is also a solid inclusion if you’ve got a few of a single type of planeswalker or just need to protect a particular planeswalker. Mila, Crafty Companion makes your planeswalkers harder to attack and draws you cards when they’re targeted.
The best protection is getting them out of the way. Semester’s End blinks out your planeswalkers until the next end step and brings them back with an extra loyalty to boot. It also blinks out your creatures if you need to protect those too! If one planeswalker is getting pounced on, you can use Resourceful Defense to move loyalty counters over from a planeswalker to another and let them die supporting another superfriend.
Planeswalkers are powerful because their abilities are pretty wild. Why not get more out of them? Copy them if you need to! Spark Double is one of the best clones in the game. Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Clever Impersonator can let you make another of what you need! Rowan’s Talent and Rowan Kenrith allow you to copy planeswalker abilities. Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil allow you to activate your planeswalkers’ abilities an additional time.
There are only two mass planeswalker recursion spells in these colours: Triumphant Reckoning and Ascend from Avernus. Got a graveyard full of planeswalkers? Why not have a battlefield full of planeswalkers instead!
Repair and Recharge is an excellent piece of versatile recursion. Five mana to get back an artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker to play and get a Powerstone? Sounds good to me! Especially in a deck that can make use of Archaeomancer or Ardent Elementalist.
Elspeth Conquers Death is one of the strongest pieces of removal on a permanent. It can go through all three chapters in one go with all the proliferate in the deck so far. Play for five mana, exile a card, make things more expensive for your opponents, and get a creature or planeswalker to play? This card is cracked!
Teferi’s Talent and Teferi, Temporal Archmage can nab you an emblem to allow you to activate planeswalker abilities at instant speed, which is absolutely backbreaking. In my Aminatou deck, the moment this happens, my opponents know it’s only a matter of time before it’s game over.
Planebound Accomplice is planeswalker Sneak Attack. With you being able to basically speed run to ultimate abilities, paying one mana for a planeswalker and probably its best ability is pretty bonkers. Ignite the Beacon and Call the Gatewatch allow you to tutor for planeswalkers. Urza’s Sylex can also tutor planeswalkers if you can blink it or when you activate it.
All Will Be One deals damage whenever you put counters on things – like planeswalkers. Oath of Jace will let you scry like crazy in this deck and if you can copy or flicker it, you will draw a ton of cards. Urza Assembles the Titans is an amazing way to dig to a planeswalker, play one for free, and trigger multiple loyalty activations. Such a solid value piece for planeswalker decks.
That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know what you’d like me to cover in the next one! @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!
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